The current polarization of the American political landscape gets a lot of attention. People are more hardened in their political opinions than at any time in the past 40 years, and perhaps even longer.
Political discourse has become less civil and more intense. Social media has become a playground of fake news, propaganda and political manipulation. Facts and truth are being sacrificed daily on the altar of political expediency.

Much of this revolves around where one stands on the presidency of Donald Trump. To his hardcore supporters, he can do no wrong and his opponents are just flaky liberals. To his critics, Trump is an aberrant political animal and does not deserve to be “normalized” as a mainstream politician.
We won’t settle that debate anytime soon. In fact, many of us will be long gone by the time history reflects on our time and renders a more dispassionate judgement.
That’s the way it has always been. Throughout American history, citizens have gotten caught up in political debates which, at the time, seemed so clear. Yet in hindsight, we know today that often the majority opinion in the past was wrong and those with minority views were right.

A brief look at how history judges:

• European settlers to the New World often hated the Native Americans they encountered here. While there were some who viewed Native Americans with sympathy and admiration, many Americans wanted them pushed out or killed. That view was held by some of our most revered American statesmen. But it was Andrew Jackson who has come to embody the popular attitude of the time: “That those tribes cannot exist surrounded by our settlements and in continual contact with our citizens is certain. They have neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement which are essential to any favorable change in their condition. Established in the midst of another and a superior race, and without appreciating the causes of their inferiority or seeking to control them, they must necessarily yield to the force of circumstances and ere long disappear,” Jackson said. We now know that Jackson’s treatment of Native Americans was nothing short of ethnic cleansing and a horrible blot on our nation’s history. Today, we celebrate Native American culture and condemn those who destroyed it. The majority opinion about Native Americans in the past was wrong.

• Before the Civil War, most Southerners defended slavery. Some defended it on economic grounds, but many also justified it on religious grounds. “... the right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures, both by precept and example,” said Richard Furman, President, South Carolina Baptist Convention at the time. Many believed that at the time. Today, we recognize that slavery was a horrible and immoral institution. The abolitionists of that era were right, but they were a minority voice in the antebellum South. The opinion about slavery held by of a majority of white Southerners was wrong.

• Most Americans opposed women getting the vote up until the 19th Amendment was finally ratified in 1920. Women who wanted to vote were called “Soapbox Militants” and men feared that allowing women to vote would put them under “petticoat rule.” Opponents also said that politics was a dirty business and that it would “soil” the female persona if they were allowed the vote. Today, we laugh at the silly reasons people opposed the suffragette movement, but at the time those were serious arguments. The majority opinion on that issue was wrong.

• When the Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954 that schools should be integrated, the decision was met with a huge outcry in the South. White Citizens Councils were organized and anti-integration speakers went town to town blasting the ruling. Private schools began to organize and many whites fled cities for the “whiteness” of the suburbs. Opposition to school integration was openly racist — reading articles from that era makes one shudder at the hatred that was openly expressed. Today, we see that era for the bigotry that it really was. The majority opinion was wrong.

• When he first came onto the public stage, a majority of Americans supported Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist crusade. The Cold War had created a lot of fear and McCarthy’s allegations that Soviet subversives had infiltrated various government institutions was taken seriously. But McCarthy was exposed as a bully and thug during televised hearings. His public support fell and Americans came to see him for what he really was. The majority opinion that had supported him was wrong.

• The Civil Rights act of 1964 was also vehemently opposed by a majority of white Southerners. Our own Sen. Richard Russell led the fight against the act, saying: “We will resist to the bitter end any measure or any movement which would have a tendency to bring about social equality and intermingling and amalgamation of the races in our (Southern) states.” The law passed anyway. The majority who opposed it and who opposed equality for all citizens were wrong.

• Public support for the Vietnam War was initially strong. The fear of communism spreading in Southeast Asia blinded many to the reality of that conflict and America’s deepening involvement in it. It was only after the war dragged on year after year with no end in sight, combined with the impact of a vocal anti-war movement, that public sentiment began to shift. Today, we view the war as having been a major mistake in American foreign policy. Although hated at the time by many Americans, the anti-war protestors (“damn hippies!”) proved to have been right in their opposition to that war. The early majority opinion about Vietnam was wrong.

• In the early days of Watergate, most Americans thought President Nixon should not resign or be impeached. But after the televised Senate hearings in 1973 and the drumbeat of ensuring scandals, public opinion shifted and eventually a majority came to believe that he should resign. Even then, he still had many defenders who blamed liberals and the media for attacking “their” president. Today, few would defend Nixon’s Watergate or the cover-up that he directed. The majority opinion was wrong.

• In 2003 when the U.S. invaded Iraq, it was controversial, but around half of the nation supported the action. The memory of 9-11 was still fresh and we wanted revenge. But as with Vietnam, as the Iraq War dragged on with no end in sight, public opinion changed. Today, a majority believe the war was a mistake. The majority opinion in 2003 was wrong.

In all of these examples, public opinion shifted and history judges these issues differently than they were viewed at the time. In the midst of a controversy, it’s difficult to see events clearly.
None of us know how the heated issues being debated today will be judged in the future. The opinions we hold so dearly now could be completely wrong and our grandchildren and great-grandchildren may think we were really, really dumb.
Only one thing is certain: History will judge us and the views we espouse today with a lens we don’t have.

Mike Buffington is co-publisher of Mainstreet Newspapers. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.

With some of your examples, just because the majority opinion has changed does not mean it has been corrected. The "majority" opinion on significant issues changes constantly, especially since the 1920's. Do you think the majority opinion has changed (multiple times) on key issues since our Constitution was created?
It's silly you relate majority opinion to actual correctness so adamantly.

You missed the point, which is that just because a majority of people today believe something is right doesn't make it right. History shows that majority opinions on major beliefs turnout to be wrong when judged from a distance.

You're not understanding. You are saying that the majority opinion changed over time. What I am saying is just because the majority opinion changed does not mean it was corrected. Societies have shifted in the wrong direction countless times, many times the change is due to the majority opinion changing.

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